Gift total to WMU for 2002-03 tops $19.4 million

Sept. 14, 2003

KALAMAZOO -- Western Michigan University received more than
$19.4 million in gifts during the University's 2002-03 fiscal
year, the second-largest, one-year total in school history.

According to a report presented to the WMU Board of Trustees
at its Sept. 12 meeting, the University received $19,484,338
in gifts during the fiscal year that began July 1, 2002, and
ended June 30, 2003. The past four years have seen the four largest
one-year gift totals in WMU history, including the record $26
million received in 2001-02, $18.5 million in 2000-01 and $17.5
million in 1999-2000.

All gifts to the University are received through the WMU Foundation
or the Paper Technology Foundation, which supports the internationally
known paper programs at WMU. For the 2002-03 fiscal year, the
WMU Foundation reported current and deferred cash gifts totaling
$17,009,368 and non-cash gifts valued at $1,841,313, for a total
of $18,940,681. The Paper Technology Foundation reported cash
gifts totaling $291,657 and non-cash gifts valued at $252,000,
for a total of $543,657.

Also reported to the trustees at the Sept. 12 meeting was
$5,578,367 in gifts received during July, the first month of
the 2003-04 fiscal year. A distribution of more than $2.5 million
from the estate of alumna Gwen Frostic accounted for nearly half
of the July total. The Frostic gift of about $13 million, was
announced in January 2002 and is the largest in WMU history.

Other major gifts received in July include $177,280 from the
estate of Helen E. Plough of Delton, Mich., who died Dec. 14,
2000. Her husband, John H. Plough, earned a teaching certificate
in 1915 and a bachelor's degree in 1942 from WMU. He died in
1982. The gift will fund the John and Helen Plough Scholarship
in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies.

Fernando U. Fajardo of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., contributed
$42,000 to the Fajardo Fund for the WMU Environmental Institute
in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Lyndon and Carmen Cronen of Portage, Mich., supported the
Athletic Director's Discretionary Fund with a gift of $10,000.